Research Information System
East J Med , vol.25, no.3, pp.465-476, 2020 (Scopus)
Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV), Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and SARS-CoV-2 are related to
the coronaviridae family. The worldwide pandemic of the new coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID -19) due to severe acute
respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) broke out in Wuhan province of China, in December 2019, and spread
rapidly throughout the world. More than 6 million cases and 370,000 deaths had been reported by 31 May 2020 in more
than 200 countries. No data are available from any clinical trials supporting a proposed prophylactic therapy. More than
300 active clinical trials are currently underway. Many drugs have been studied against COVID-19, but there is no actual
evidence from any randomized clinical trials with a potential therapy that can improve outcomes of a patient diagnosed
with COVID-19. In some cases, many of the investigated drugs cause side effects, e.g. chloroquine, ribavirin. Besides its
beneficial effects such as reducing disease progression and decreasing symptom duration, chloroquine can cause cardiac
side effects. Ribavirin, on the other hand, is recognized as a teratogen and considered unsafe in pregnancy. No special
effective antiviral therapy against COVID-19 is currently available. Although the course of the disease is mild and
moderate in the majority of the COVID-19 patients, more than 5%-7% of the patients' life being under severely
susceptible threats requires more effective medicinal products, urgently